Beginner Golf: Irons and Woods for Beginner Golfers (Video) - by Pete Styles
Beginner Golf: Irons and Woods for Beginner Golfers (Video) - by Pete Styles

During this section, we are going to look at the primary difference between your irons and your woods. So when we look at the golf clubs, we can clearly see there’s two big differences to the look of the golf club; massive difference in the length, a massive difference in the head size, type, and shape. So we need to generalize a little bit here because there are clubs that would overlap a little bit between the irons and the woods. But if you can just generalize that the woods are designed mainly to hit the golf ball as far as possible. These are the guys that would give you the distance on the golf course. Hitting your first shot on each hole or your long second shot on each hole, to try and get the ball as far down towards the green as possible. And generally speaking, the woods are actually slightly harder to use when you’re learning to play golf as well.

So often I would encourage golfers, actually just leave the woods to one side for the first few weeks or months. Now often that doesn’t go again – sorry, that goes against what people want to do. They want to hit the glory shot. I see often guys come to their very first lesson with only a driver, only the hardest club in the bag and they stand there trying to hit that in a lesson and I have to take it off them and I just explain that, you know, this is the hardest thing to use. Some people don’t use a driver at all and some people don’t use a driver for the first few years at all. It’s actually a lot easier, to start off with your irons. So they weren’t quite go thus far, they don’t quite look as glamorous when you hit them a million miles down there, but are actually lot easier to use. And the irons are designed to go certain distances at certain heights. So we have the variation, that we can use shorter clubs or longer clubs within the range of the irons.

Now the shorter clubs, things like the pitching wedges, the 9-iron and the 8-iron were designed to go short distances and higher. And because they’re short in length, they are easier to use. So if I could give you one tip when you come to the driving range to practice, you start off with an iron, play it off a tee-peg, learn your skills and your swing just like that. And eventually when you get a bit more confident, go down through your irons, from your 7 irons, 6, 5, 4, may be a 3 iron if you want to try and be really difficult with the 3 iron. Then when you build your skills up, that’s when you can take out the driver. So remember, the driver and the woods are for the distance. The irons and the wedges are for the short and more controlled shots. The woods are generally harder to use. The irons are generally easier to use.

We should have one note about the hybrid golf clubs, which sits somewhere between the irons and the woods. They give the distance sometimes that the woods can give you, but they give you the ease of use of a long iron or a mid iron. So hopefully you’ve got the iron sorted out. The hybrids are in the middle and the woods are at the top end to give you the distance. Learn to practice with all three, but start off with your irons.

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During this section, we are going to look at the primary difference between your irons and your woods. So when we look at the golf clubs, we can clearly see there’s two big differences to the look of the golf club; massive difference in the length, a massive difference in the head size, type, and shape. So we need to generalize a little bit here because there are clubs that would overlap a little bit between the irons and the woods. But if you can just generalize that the woods are designed mainly to hit the golf ball as far as possible. These are the guys that would give you the distance on the golf course. Hitting your first shot on each hole or your long second shot on each hole, to try and get the ball as far down towards the green as possible. And generally speaking, the woods are actually slightly harder to use when you’re learning to play golf as well.

So often I would encourage golfers, actually just leave the woods to one side for the first few weeks or months. Now often that doesn’t go again – sorry, that goes against what people want to do. They want to hit the glory shot. I see often guys come to their very first lesson with only a driver, only the hardest club in the bag and they stand there trying to hit that in a lesson and I have to take it off them and I just explain that, you know, this is the hardest thing to use. Some people don’t use a driver at all and some people don’t use a driver for the first few years at all. It’s actually a lot easier, to start off with your irons. So they weren’t quite go thus far, they don’t quite look as glamorous when you hit them a million miles down there, but are actually lot easier to use. And the irons are designed to go certain distances at certain heights. So we have the variation, that we can use shorter clubs or longer clubs within the range of the irons.

Now the shorter clubs, things like the pitching wedges, the 9-iron and the 8-iron were designed to go short distances and higher. And because they’re short in length, they are easier to use. So if I could give you one tip when you come to the driving range to practice, you start off with an iron, play it off a tee-peg, learn your skills and your swing just like that. And eventually when you get a bit more confident, go down through your irons, from your 7 irons, 6, 5, 4, may be a 3 iron if you want to try and be really difficult with the 3 iron. Then when you build your skills up, that’s when you can take out the driver. So remember, the driver and the woods are for the distance. The irons and the wedges are for the short and more controlled shots. The woods are generally harder to use. The irons are generally easier to use.

We should have one note about the hybrid golf clubs, which sits somewhere between the irons and the woods. They give the distance sometimes that the woods can give you, but they give you the ease of use of a long iron or a mid iron. So hopefully you’ve got the iron sorted out. The hybrids are in the middle and the woods are at the top end to give you the distance. Learn to practice with all three, but start off with your irons.